ILS Training News Update
ALIGNING ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE
THROUGH LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT
Learning and development professionals have always contributed to operational, product and service quality
enhancements. The contribution learning makes to the organization’s culture has placed the issue of ‘alignment’
centre-stage for learning and development professionals.
For an organization to effectively translate its goals into results
there must be alignment between its business strategy and
organization culture. Alignment is achieved when the shared
beliefs, values, and working behaviors support goals and
objectives.
Culture is ‘the way we do things around here’ and is often
considered to be one of the hardest things to
change. Developing appropriate attitudes, skills and capability
amongst key employees so they respond to strategic change is
a key area where learning and development can make an
impact.
Behavioral changes have to come before "cultural change".
Once the new behaviors become widespread the cultural
change has taken place. Thus, it is necessary to identify the key
behaviors that will produce the required change and these
behaviors must be supported and reinforced. For example, if
teamwork is a desired behavior but the organization only
rewards individual accomplishments it is easy to see what the
organization will get.
Using Learning to Reinforce Culture
The three key phases in leveraging enterprise learning to drive
culture change are; ‘Alignment’, ‘Learn and Grow’ and
‘Sustainment’.
Integrated Learning Systems Pte Ltd
www.ilsperformance.com
Integrated
by Jessica Choo, Principal Consultant & Director
Integrated Learning Systems Pte Ltd
During the Alignment Phase, all the initial planning to develop
the approach is determined by: 1) establishing a leadership
team around a common vision, 2) determining the desired
culture attributes and 3) conducting a development needs
assessment and building a roadmap for employee
empowerment.
For the change to be successful the commitment of the entire
leadership team will need to be developed. This includes
defining the vision and cultural attributes required for the
organization to be successful. Then for each of these
attributes; key behaviors need to be defined that illustrate
what people will be doing to ‘live’ that cultural attribute on a
daily basis.
The leaders must be aligned to answers to these questions:
1. Why do we have to change?
2. What’s our direction? What are the non-negotiable stakes
in the ground?
3. Are you truly serious, or is this another “go-through-the-
motions” initiative?
4. How am I going to be affected? What’s in it for me?
5. How do I control my own destiny?
The entire organization can then be led with a consistent
message and leaders can influence and sustain the culture.
Leaders need a roadmap showing how to cascade key culture
behaviors down through the organization. Once the roadmap
is established a variety of resources can be employed to build
a cultural change.
An organization can have the greatest business model and
strategy in the world but if the employees can’t handle the
growth it will lead to major problems. Thus, the Learn and
Grow Phase empowers employees with the necessary
conviction, mindset, and skills to be effective in ‘living’ the
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 ILS Training News Update
culture. Without a well-defined and planned training regime
any cultural change will not succeed. Training must be targeted
at the needs of the organization and the individuals. The topics
covered in this phase must be relevant to the desired culture;
be it innovation, teamwork, service quality or leadership
excellence.
This phase provides employees with the foundational training
for consistent enforcement. One on one coaching or training
works only if the trainer is consistent, has been trained in
facilitation and is exemplary in bringing about behavioral
change. So often we assign a new employee to an old
employee who simply passes on bad habits. Repetition of the
same message with role modeling is essential.
Consistent with the alignment phase, the Learn and Grow
phase includes: 1) establishing the responsibilities of each role
in relation to the desired changes, 2) identifying the
competencies required of each role to effect the culture
change and the respective performance and behavior targets
and milestones, 3) organizing a central change support group,
4) developing or customizing the relevant modules and
delivery methods and 5) supporting and implementing the
learn and grow plans.
It needs to be remembered that without a full and thorough
training program no culture change will live long past the
“Program of the Month” status and will ultimately disappoint
in terms of realized versus proposed gains.
During the Sustainment Phase, the ongoing monitoring and
sustaining of the culture needs to continue. In some ways the
Learn and Grow phase never ends as the organization
continues to evolve. However, the level of intensity of change
activities will decrease as the newly desired behaviors are
embedded and the desired culture is achieved. The key
elements of this state are: 1) continuous reinforcement, 2)
ongoing monitoring and measurement and 3) intervention
where adjustments are necessary.
Reinforcing the desired behaviors of a culture is the most
important aspect of sustaining the culture change. This can be
done by integrating the desired culture behaviors with the
appraisal process and providing rewards and recognition
consistent with the desired culture. As new employees are
assimilated into the organization their orientation is centered
Integrated Learning Systems Pte Ltd
www.ilsperformance.com
Integrated
on the desired culture attributes. The behaviors of leaders will
continue to provide the most persuasive examples of what the
culture should be.
Periodic measures of the culture should be used to monitor
and to sustain progress. This can be done through an annual
organization survey that includes culture-based questions. It is
also advisable to use a behavior-anchored assessment tool in
conducting periodic culture assessments. Focus groups
interviews can be used to gain a better understanding of the
meaning behind a survey instrument. In addition, culture
issues need to be included and discussed during meetings at
the corporate and local leadership team level.
In the end, great organizational cultures don’t just happen.
Good organization development professionals and change
leaders constantly monitor the critical elements within their
organization. They work to find the most obvious causes of
poor alignment, put programs and metrics in place and then go
at it, leveraging their enterprise learning structures to help
make it happen.
CASE STUDY
One large global transportation company enjoyed a great reputation for
financial performance but got low marks for employee engagement. The
new CEO had just taken charge of the firm and needed to align his
people around a new strategy, shape the preferred culture, and enable
his management team to take up the challenge of promoting the overall
culture change.
We designed a comprehensive, integrated, and customized approach to
leadership development and behavior change based on a thorough
understanding of the business agenda, organization, and the current
state of leadership in his company. We worked closely with the CEO and
his team to define a company leadership model that was grounded in
the CEO’s personal passion for open communication and excellence.
This model explicitly described what is expected from leaders.
We aligned the management team on how they could collectively add
value outside of running their individual departments. We helped clarify
what the company now stood for over and above the organization’s
usual focus on dependability and making the numbers.
With our guidance, the company deployed intensive 360° feedback and
coaching for individual members of the senior team, and developed a
two-day leadership development workshop for the management.
Our attention to measurable results helped establish trust and prove
that specific leader behaviors would drive the preferred culture of open
communication and excellence.
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